Tongyong Pinyin (Chinese: 通用拼音; pinyin: Tōngyòng pīnyīn; literally "Universal/General Usage Sound-combining") is the current official romanization of Mandarin Chinese in the Republic of China. The Romanization of Chinese is the use of the Latin alphabet to write Chinese Standard Mandarin, also known as Standard Spoken Chinese, is the official modern Chinese spoken language used in mainland China and Taiwan Pinyin, more formally Hanyu pinyin, is the most common Standard Mandarin Romanization system in use The Chinese transcription of the École française d'Extrême-Orient (EFEO was the most used phonetic transcription of Chinese in the French speaking world until the middle Gwoyeu Romatzyh (literally "National Romanization " abbreviated GR, is a system for writing Mandarin Chinese in the Latin alphabet The spelling of Gwoyeu Romatzyh (GR can be divided into its treatment of initials finals and tones GR uses contrasting unvoiced/voiced Latinxua Sin Wenz ( also known as Sin Wenz, Latinxua Sinwenz, Zhongguo Latinxua Sin Wenz, Beifangxua Latinxua Sin Wenz or Latinxua Mandarin Phonetic Symbols II (國語注音符號第二式 abbreviated MPS II is a Romanization system formerly used in the Republic of China ( Taiwan Chinese Postal Map Romanization ( Traditional Chinese: 郵政式拼音 Simplified Chinese: 邮政式拼音 Pinyin: Yóuzhèngshì Pīnyīn refers to the Wade-Giles (ˌweɪdˈʤaɪlz) sometimes abbreviated Wade, is a Romanization system (phonetic notation and Transcription) for the Mandarin The Yale romanizations are four systems created during World War II for use by United States military personnel. Legge romanization is a Transcription system for Mandarin Chinese, used by the prolific 19th century sinologist James Legge. Simplified Wade is a modification of the Wade-Giles Romanization system for writing Mandarin Chinese. Below is a table from pinyininfo which compares the different Romanizations of Standard Mandarin. Standard Cantonese is the standard variant of the Cantonese (Yuet language Guangdong Romanization refers to the four romanization schemes published by the Guangdong Provincial Education Department in 1960 for transliterating the Standard Cantonese The Hong Kong Government Cantonese Romanisation ( not an official name is the more or less consistent way for romanising Cantonese Proper nouns Jyutping (sometimes spelled Jyutpin) is a Romanization system for Standard Cantonese developed by the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong (LSHK The Meyer-Wempe Romanization system was developed by two Catholic missionaries in Hong Kong, Bernhard F Sidney Lau is a system of romanisation for Standard Cantonese, developed by Sidney Lau for teaching Cantonese For Cantonese romanisation scheme derived by S L Wong see S L For Cantonese transcription scheme derived by S L Wong see S L Standard Cantonese Pinyin ( is a Romanization system for Standard Cantonese developed by Yu Bingzhao (余秉昭 in 1971, and subsequently modified Standard Romanization is a Romanization system for Standard Cantonese developed by Christian missionaries in South China in 1888 The Yale romanizations are four systems created during World War II for use by United States military personnel. The Barnett-Chao (abbreviated here as B-C) system of romanization for writing Cantonese is based on the principles of the Gwoyeu Romatzyh system (abbreviated Northern Wu Romanization Scheme So called "Long-short" (长短音 because its use of assigning 2 vowel letters for long vowels and 1 vowel letter for short vowels (those syllables that The Southern Min language or Min Nan ( POJ: Bân-lâm-gú or "Southern Fujian" language refers to a family of Chinese languages Dialects Pe̍h-ōe-jī ( POJ) ( is an Orthography in the Latin alphabet created and introduced to Fujian and Taiwan by Presbyterian Guangdong Romanization refers to the four romanization schemes published by the Guangdong Provincial Education Department in 1960 for transliterating the Standard Cantonese Guangdong Romanization refers to the four romanization schemes published by the Guangdong Provincial Education Department in 1960 for transliterating the Standard Cantonese The Eastern Min language or Min Dong ( Foochow Romanized: Mìng-dĕ̤ng-ngṳ̄ is the language mainly spoken in the eastern part of Fujian Province Foochow Romanized, aka Bàng-uâ-cê ( BUC for short Chinese characters: 平話字 or Mei County ( Chinese 梅县 pinyin Méixiàn is a county in northeastern Guangdong province the People's Republic of China. Guangdong Romanization refers to the four romanization schemes published by the Guangdong Provincial Education Department in 1960 for transliterating the Standard Cantonese Pe̍h-ōe-jī ( POJ) ( is an Orthography in the Latin alphabet created and introduced to Fujian and Taiwan by Presbyterian General Chinese (GC is a phonetic system invented by Yuen Ren Chao to represent the pronunciations of all major Chinese dialects simultaneously This transcription is known as the Palladiy system and is the official Cyrillization of Chinese in Russia. Xiao'erjing or Xiao'erjin ( Xiao'erjing ar شِيَوْ عَر دٍ or in its shortened form Xiaojing ( is the practice of writing Sinitic languages The Romanisation of the Chinese language in Singapore is not dictated by a single policy nor is its policy implementation consistent as the local Pinyin, more formally Hanyu pinyin, is the most common Standard Mandarin Romanization system in use In Linguistics, romanization (or latinization, also spelled romanisation or latinisation) is the representation of a Word or Standard Mandarin, also known as Standard Spoken Chinese, is the official modern Chinese spoken language used in mainland China and Taiwan REPUBLIC OF CHINA ARTICLE GUIDELINES ROC's Ministry of Education approved the system in 2002 but its use is not mandatory.
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The impetus behind the invention of Tongyong Pinyin came from the need for a standardized romanization system in Taiwan. For decades the island had employed various systems, usually simplifications or adaptations of Wade-Giles. Wade-Giles (ˌweɪdˈʤaɪlz) sometimes abbreviated Wade, is a Romanization system (phonetic notation and Transcription) for the Mandarin (Zhuyin fuhao, a standard phonetic system for language education in Taiwan's schools, does not employ the Latin alphabet. )
Tourists, expatriates and immigrants in Taiwan most often use English when they are not familiar with Mandarin. The Hanyu Pinyin system, the system used in China and by the UN, offers strengths as a consistent phonetic system for Mandarin but has serious shortcomings in helping speakers with no training pronounce Mandarin words reliably. Pinyin, more formally Hanyu pinyin, is the most common Standard Mandarin Romanization system in use Talk People's Republic of China) PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA ARTICLE GUIDELINES The United Nations ( UN) is an International organization whose stated aims are to facilitate cooperation in International law, International security The sounds Hanyu Pinyin assigns to the letters Q and X, for example, are not idiomatic in the languages of most users of the Roman alphabet. Tongyong Pinyin represents an effort to preserve the strengths of the pinyin system while overcoming some of these difficulties.
The majority of Taiwan natives do not speak Mandarin as their mother tongue. The first language most individuals learn as children is Taiwanese. This language, unwritten until the nineteenth century, has historically lacked a consistent means of phonetic representation. The same situation exists with the mother tongues spoken by sizable minorities in Taiwan, such as Hakka and aboriginal peoples. The languages and literature of these people is a subject of study and education in Taiwan, and many place names (including the word Taiwan itself) are derived from languages other than Mandarin. Tongyong Pinyin thus represents an effort to provide a phonetic romanization system for Mandarin that, with very little modification, could be used to represent Taiwanese and other languages of the island.
Tongyong Pinyin was introduced in Taiwan in 1998 by Yu Bor-chuan (余伯泉). The goal was to preserve the strengths of pinyin while overcoming some of the pronunciation difficulties Hanyu Pinyin presents to international readers. Ironically, using the system he developed to ameliorate this problem, most international readers will pronounce the second character of his name incorrectly as "bore. " Yu's system has undergone some subsequent revision.
Discussion and adoption of Tongyong Pinyin, like many other initiatives in Taiwan, quickly acquired a partisan cast turning on issues of national identity. Officials who identified most strongly with the island itself, such as the DPP and allied parties, saw no reason to adopt Hanyu Pinyin just because China and the UN had. The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP ( Taiwanese: Bîn-chú-chìn-pō͘-tóng Traditional Chinese: zh-Hant 民主進步黨 Simplified Chinese: zh-Hans If Tongyong Pinyin more adequately met the island's needs, Taiwan had reason enough to adopt it. Officials who identified more strongly with Chinese culture, such as the KMT, saw no reason to introduce a new system unique to Taiwan if Hanyu Pinyin had already gained international acceptance. Each side accused the other of basing its preference on anti-China or pro-China sentiment rather than an objective discussion of community goals.
In early October 2000 the Mandarin Commission of the Ministry of Education proposed to use Tongyong Pinyin as the national standard. Education Minister Ovid Tzeng (曾志朗) submitted a draft of the Taiwanese Romanization in late October to the Executive Yuan but the proposal was rejected. The Executive Yuan ( literally "Executive court" is the Executive branch of the Government of the Republic of China. In November 2000 Minister Tzeng suggested the government adopt Hanyu Pinyin with some modifications for local dialects, but the proposal was rejected. On 10 July 2002 Taiwan's Ministry of Education held a meeting for 27 members. Only 13 attended. Two left early, plus the chairman could not vote, so the bill for using Tongyong Pinyin was passed by ten votes. In August 2002 the government adopted Tongyong Pinyin through an administrative order which local governments have the authority to override within their jurisdiction. August 2002: January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September
With the KMT's legislative and presidential electoral victories in 2008, Tongyong Pinyin may be replaced by Hanyu Pinyin as the ROC government standard.
Tongyong Pinyin is thus the official romanization system in Taiwan but its use is voluntary. The romanization system one encounters in Taiwan varies according to which government authority administers the facility. Street signs in most areas employ Tongyong Pinyin, including Kaohsiung City, Tainan City, Taichung City and neighboring counties. Taichung ( is a city located in west-central Taiwan with a population of just over one million people making it the third largest city on the island after Taipei Taipei City uses Hanyu Pinyin exclusively. Taipei ( Taiwanese Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Tâi-pak-chhī Jhuyin Fuhao: ㄊㄞˊ ㄅㄟˇ ㄕˋ Hakka: Thòi-pet-sṳ has been the capital of Taipei County uses Hanyu Pinyin with Tongyong Pinyin given in parentheses. Taipei County ( is located in northern Taiwan and encircles Taipei City. Modified Wade-Giles spellings are still popularly used for many proper names, especially personal names and businesses.
The political impasse stalled Ministry of Education goals of replacing zhuyin with pinyin to teach pronunciation in elementary school. Zhuyin is still widely used to teach Mandarin pronunciation to schoolchildren. Children's books published in Taiwan typically display zhuyin characters next to Chinese characters in the text.
The Tongyong Pinyin system also exists in a Taiwanese phonetic symbol version (台語音標版) which lacks the letter f but adds the letter v (for 万). On September 28, 2006, the Ministry of Education rejected the use of Tongyong Pinyin for the Taiwanese dialect in favor of Pe̍h-ōe-jī (台羅版拼音). Events 48 BC - Pompey the Great is assassinated on orders of King Ptolemy of Egypt after landing in Egypt. Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. Pe̍h-ōe-jī ( POJ) ( is an Orthography in the Latin alphabet created and introduced to Fujian and Taiwan by Presbyterian [1]
Notable features of Tongyong Pinyin are:
Ignoring tone, 80. 53% of the Tongyong Pinyin syllables are spelled identically to those of Hanyu Pinyin; 19. A syllable ( Greek:) is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds 47% are spelled differently. The difference widens when syllables are measured according to average frequency of use in everyday life, resulting in a 48. 84% difference in spellings. [2]
The prevalence of Hanyu Pinyin as an established system weighs at least as heavily on the debate over Tongyong Pinyin as any feature of the system itself. Arguments presented in the ongoing debate include these.
Intrinsic
/c/ --> tʃ _i /s/ --> ʃ _i
[These palatalization rules are common in many languages, including Italian (ciao) and English (Asia). In each case, the consonant is softened (palatalized) to the corresponding palato-alveolar (or alveolar-palatal, in the case of Mandarin) affricate and fricative). So including a few extra phonological rules, rather than introducing new phonemes, cannot simply be dismissed as a bad trade-off. Other considerations have to be judged and weighed before arriving at that conclusion].
Practical
| IPA | ɑ | ɔ | ɤ | aɪ | eɪ | ɑʊ | ɤʊ | an | ən | ɑŋ | ɤŋ | ɑɻ | ʊŋ | i | iɛ | iɤʊ | iɛn | iɪn | jiŋ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pinyin | a | o | e | ai | ei | ao | ou | an | en | ang | eng | er | ong | yi | ye | you | yan | yin | ying |
| Tongyong Pinyin | a | o | e | ai | ei | ao | ou | an | en | ang | eng | er | ong | yi | ye | you | yan | yin | ying |
| Wade-Giles | a | o | o/ê | ai | ei | ao | ou | an | ên | ang | êng | êrh | ung | i | yeh | yu | yen | yin | ying |
| Zhuyin | ㄚ | ㄛ | ㄜ | ㄞ | ㄟ | ㄠ | ㄡ | ㄢ | ㄣ | ㄤ | ㄥ | ㄦ | ㄨㄥ | ㄧ | ㄧㄝ | ㄧㄡ | ㄧㄢ | ㄧㄣ | ㄧㄥ |
| example | 阿 | 哦 | 俄 | 艾 | 黑 | 凹 | 偶 | 安 | 恩 | 昂 | 冷 | 二 | 中 | 一 | 也 | 又 | 言 | 音 | 英 |
| IPA | u | uɔ | ueɪ | uan | uən | uʊn | uɤŋ | uʊŋ | y | yɛ | yɛn | yn | iʊŋ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pinyin | wu | wo | wei | wan | wen | weng | yu | yue | yuan | yun | yong | ||
| Tongyong Pinyin | wu | wo | wei | wan | wun | wong | yu | yue | yuan | yun | yong | ||
| Wade-Giles | wu | wo | wei | wan | wên | wêng | yü | yüeh | yüan | yün | yung | ||
| Zhuyin | ㄨ | ㄨㄛ | ㄨㄟ | ㄨㄢ | ㄨㄣ | ㄨㄥ | ㄩ | ㄩㄝ | ㄩㄢ | ㄩㄣ | ㄩㄥ | ||
| example | 五 | 我 | 位 | 完 | 文 | 翁 | 玉 | 月 | 元 | 云 | 用 | ||
| IPA | p | pʰ | m | fəŋ | fʊŋ | tiou | tuei | tʰ | ny | ly | kəɻ | kʰ | xə |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pinyin | b | p | m | feng | diu | dui | t | nü | lü | ger | k | he | |
| Tongyong Pinyin | b | p | m | fong | diou | duei | t | nyu | lyu | ger | k | he | |
| Wade-Giles | p | p' | m | fêng | tiu | tui | t' | nü | lü | kêrh | k' | ho | |
| Zhuyin | ㄅ | ㄆ | ㄇ | ㄈㄥ | ㄉㄧㄡ | ㄉㄨㄟ | ㄊ | ㄋㄩ | ㄌㄩ | ㄍㄜㄦ | ㄎ | ㄏㄜ | |
| example | 玻 | 婆 | 末 | 封 | 丟 | 兌 | 特 | 女 | 旅 | 歌儿 | 可 | 何 | |
| IPA | tɕiɛn | tɕyʊŋ | tɕʰɪn | ɕyɛn | ʈʂə | ʈʂɚ | ʈʂʰə | ʈʂʰɚ | ʂə | ʂɚ | ʐə | ʐɚ | tsə | tsuɔ | tsɨ | tsʰə | tsʰɨ | sə | sɨ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pinyin | jian | jiong | qin | xuan | zhe | zhi | che | chi | she | shi | re | ri | ze | zuo | zi | ce | ci | se | si |
| Tongyong Pinyin | jian | jyong | cin | syuan | jhe | jhih | che | chih | she | shih | re | rih | ze | zuo | zih | ce | cih | se | sih |
| Wade-Giles | chien | chiung | ch'in | hsüan | chê | chih | ch'ê | ch'ih | shê | shih | jê | jih | tsê | tso | tzŭ | ts'ê | tz'ŭ | sê | szŭ |
| Zhuyin | ㄐㄧㄢ | ㄐㄩㄥ | ㄑㄧㄣ | ㄒㄩㄢ | ㄓㄜ | ㄓ | ㄔㄜ | ㄔ | ㄕㄜ | ㄕ | ㄖㄜ | ㄖ | ㄗㄜ | ㄗㄨㄛ | ㄗ | ㄘㄜ | ㄘ | ㄙㄜ | ㄙ |
| example | 件 | 窘 | 秦 | 宣 | 哲 | 之 | 扯 | 赤 | 社 | 是 | 惹 | 日 | 仄 | 左 | 字 | 策 | 次 | 色 | 斯 |
| IPA | ma˥˥ | ma˧˥ | ma˨˩˦ | ma˥˩ | ma |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pinyin | mā | má | mǎ | mà | ma |
| Tongyong Pinyin | ma | má | mǎ | mà | må |
| Wade-Giles | ma1 | ma2 | ma3 | ma4 | ma0 |
| Zhuyin | ㄇㄚ | ㄇㄚˊ | ㄇㄚˇ | ㄇㄚˋ | ㄇㄚ・ |
| example (traditional/simplfied) | 媽/妈 | 麻/麻 | 馬/马 | 罵/骂 | 媽媽/妈妈 |
| Preceded by Mandarin Phonetic Symbols II |
Official romanization adopted by Taiwan's national government 2000-present |
Succeeded by current |